Every revolution, Serok Apo says, is an alliance. Two different worlds confront each other in revolutions. We, militants of Serok Apo, confront the world of fascism that is represented by Daesh, Turkish state and versions of both. Internationalism means international solidarity and alliance against fascism. At least 40 of our comrades from 15 different countries have proved their solidarity and have been martyred in the ranks of YPG and YPJ. Ş. Kendal is the eighth of our martyrs in this cemetery of martyrs. No pasarán! They shall not pass! Fascism of Daesh and Turkish state will be defeated. This is our promise to every single martyr of YPG and YPJ. The Apoist Rojava Revolution will be a beacon for a democratic civilization. Freed from sexism, exploitation and dehumanization of capitalism, oppression and genocides of nation-states, and pollution and destruction of society by industrialism, peoples of the Northern Syria will build an ethical-political and democratic community. They will build their communes where a liberated and dignified society will make democracy, arts, and sciences flourish. These communes will spread to all Kurdistan, the Middle East, and beyond. Children of Rojava will always remember our internationalist martyrs with admiration and gratitude. Maybe they will also go and fight for struggles against fascism in other parts of the world. Every single home of our martyrs in Kurdistan and in the world is a commune where the truth of Serok Apo’s philosophy and the noble struggle of Kurdish people are felt and shared. No weapon has been or will be invented to prevent the spread and actualization of this truth. Philosophy of Serok Apo along with lives and determination of our martyrs will be our guides in our revolutionary struggle for human dignity and for freedom and fraternity of peoples.

Ş. Kendal took his nom de guerre after our dear Ş. Kendal Breizh from Brittany, France who was martyred in the Resistance of the Age in Afrin in the fight against Turkish fascism. He said he was honored to take his name. We were together two months ago when we sent Ş. Baran Galicia who was also martyred in Afrin to Spain. There he said he was honored to bid farewell to a martyr from his own country. He himself also honored his commitment to the struggle against the fascism of Daesh. He is one of our oldest martyrs. But despite his age we have never seen him complain. He would cook and clean for his comrades all the time. Conscious and critical of meaninglessness of the capitalist modernity, he was always calm, collected, modest, and kind. It was his wish to be buried in Rojava in case he is martyred. We welcome him to this cemetery of martyrs and express our gratitude again for all those who were martyred for this struggle to defend peoples and their freedom. We promise again Serok Apo and all our martyrs that we will defend peoples of Northern Syria and will take Afrin back from the fascist Turkish state and its thugs. We will strengthen the fire of solidarity and fraternity of revolutionary internationalism. We salute all those who struggle against fascism in Kurdistan, the Middle East and beyond. We call on revolutionaries of the world to join the ranks of YPG International and to take a stand against global fascism of Daesh and the fascist Turkish state. We salute the noble resistance of Serok Apo in Imrali Prison against the isolation policies of the fascist Turkish state.

Our struggle against fascism, fanaticism, and invasion continues with all its intensity. We are militants of Serok Apo and will do everything in our power to realize and to spread the revolution of peace inspired by his noble resistance in Imrali Island. This is such a resistance that no fascism could defeat. Rojava Revolution is the blossom of this resistance. We want to build a democratic communal life in which all human beings live in peace and prosper without systems of domination and hierarchy that are thousands years old. We believe that no community can live with dignity and flourish without liberation of woman. We believe that relations with the nature must be based on respect that we must respect our soil, our trees, our rivers, and our sky; as we must respect our fellow human beings. We know very well that such vision would make us confront enemies. As roses have their thorns, every attempt for freedom and peace must be defended. This is why YPG was born at the bosom of people of Rojava and Northern Syria. The struggle of YPG means that we want peace but we are also ready to defend the peace and freedom of peoples. We confronted terrorism of al-Nusra, al-Qaeda and others. We destroyed ISIS at the expense of thousands of our martyrs. We protected Kurdish and Arap peoples and Christian communities. This is why the fascist Turkish state attacked Afrin which our comrades defended heroically for two months. They attacked Afrin, because they were scared that the revolution of freedom and peace would spread to the North, the South, the West, and the East. Despite the invasion orchestrated by fascist Turkish state and facilitated by other regional and global super powers, Resistance of the Age still goes on. Our comrades who are still in Afrin hit them every day. And the enemy knows very well that sooner or later they will have to leave Afrin. We are bound to achieve victory because we are warriors of truth and freedom.

In our struggle, besides peoples of Northern Syria, hundreds of comrades from all around the world joined the ranks of YPG since Kobane. We are honored by martyrdom of 40 comrades from 15 different countries. Ş. Delil America is our eleventh martyr from the US. He came to Rojava the first time in the beginning of 2016. He forced his physical limits in the training academy probably unlike any other comrade. On the small but steep hills and in the narrow and deep ravines of Cizire Canton, he refused to get rest and he kept on. He needed no break. He was eager to learn about Rojava Revolution and philosophy of Serok Apo. He quickly picked basics of Kurdish. When he completed the Academy, he went to Şeddadi and fought there. After the liberation of Şeddadi, it was the turn of Manbij. He fought valiantly from the Western banks of Euphrates to narrow streets of Manbij. Ş. Firas, Ş. Ciwan, and Ş. Givara who were martyred in Manbij were all from his unit. He himself was wounded in Manbij. He was loved and respected everyone around him. He went back home after Manbij. But he never forgot his comrades and the Rojava Revolution. When revolutionary fighters of YPG got closer to Raqqa, he decided to come for the idea, for his comrades, and for the liberation of peoples. He will be remembered with his modesty, sincerity, loyalty, self-confidence and his determination. We salute him as his comrades and promise him that the idea will live on and the revolution of peace and freedom will prevail. We will protect peoples of Northern Syria and we will take Afrin back. We also salute his family and express our gratitude and admiration in the name of peoples of Northern Syria and all Kurdistan. Your son is now also the son of thousands of families of our martyrs. You are now also our family. All families of our international martyrs are also your family. We also salute our martyrs of Afrin; Ş. Helin, Ş. Kendal, Ş. Baran, Ş. Şahin and all our Afrin martyrs and renew our vow to avenge them. We salute Serok Apo, the leader of Kurdish people and all oppressed peoples of the Middle East and beyond, and promise him once more that we will fight to death to deserve being a comrade of our martyred comrades.

We as YPG International first of all salute our martyrs who were laid to rest in this place: Ş. Rustem from Germany, Ş. Givara from the UK, Ş. Rodi from Slovenia, Ş. Çekdar from the US, Ş. Gabar from France, and Ş. Baran from the Netherlands. We also salute all our Kurdish and Arab comrades who are here in this cemetery for our martyrs. We salute them and would like to express our gratitude for them and to let everyone know that our determination to continue our struggle is getting stronger every day and we will prevail against enemies of humanity.

Today we are honored to pay our respects to Ş. Lêgerin Çiya( Alina Sanchez). Ş. Lêgerin was a ‘searcher’ for truth as her name suggests. Her search started in Argentina and when she took her share from the truth of Serok Apo’s philosophy, she became a warrior of truth. From mountains of Kurdistan to banks of Euphrates, she fought as a warrior of truth and shared the truth of revolution. She fought with her beautiful heart and treated our comrades and our people. She will always be and inspiration for other searchers and warriors of truth, and the spirit of revolutionary internationalism will live on. It is exactly this spirit in the face of which our enemies tremble. The fact that they have not been able to break the will of the Kurdish people is already too much for them. The fact that Serok Apo, the leader of Kurdish people and of all oppressed peoples of the Middle East and beyond, still continues his noble resistance despite 19 years of barbarous and cowardly isolationist policies is already too much for them. The fact that peoples of Northern Syria embraced the democratic Rojava revolution is already too much for them. The fact that the Resistance of the Age still continues in Afrin and Shehba is already too much for them. They know that they will be defeated sooner or later by the will of Kurdish people, by the philosophy of Serok Apo, by the democratic revolution of Northern Syria, and by the Resistance of the Age. Therefore, they mobilize all that is dastardly and dishonorable at their disposal along with high-tech weapons, international conspiracies, and the diplomacy of bribery and blackmailing. Therefore, they are getting more and more barbaric in their genocidal policies. But they do not know what to do with revolutionary internationalists who join the ranks of YPG and YPJ. Our 39 martyrs from 15 different countries haunt our enemies in their sleep. As they could not be able to lock up millions in a cell, they could not be able to darken our sun that shines everywhere in the world now. Ş. Lêgerin has become a beam of our sun that will illuminate Latin America and Kurdistan forever.(more…)

We first of all congratulate and salute Serok Apo’s 69th birthday. We would like to let everyone know that April 4th of 1949 is the birth of liberated Kurdishness and of liberated Kurdistan, the Middle East and beyond. It is the birth of a new civilization and of the liberation of women. It is the death knell for colonialism, imperialism, and capitalist modernity. As Serok Apo’s comrades and militants, we renew our vow to honor his noble resistance against the International Conspiracy of 15th February of 1999 and against cowardly and contemptible isolationist policies of fascist Turkish state. We will honor it with our blood, with our lives, by devoting everything we have to avenge our comrades, and by victory.

Resistance of the Age in Afrin goes on with all its intensity. Guerrillas of YPG and YPJ hit the enemy every day and they will continue to do so. Apparently, fascist Turkish state and its despicable thugs gathered from ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra etc. swallowed up Afrin. However, appearances are mostly illusive and elusive. What they swallowed up actually was broken pieces of glass. The enemy is bleeding inside and will bleed to death. So we would like to remind a simple truth to members of the fascist Turkish army and of the intelligence service, to fanatic thugs, and to traitors who betrayed their own people and collaborated with the enemy: You are dead men! The fire of retaliation burns bright and makes us stronger. Resonances of this fire are being felt everywhere in the world. A spectre is haunting the world—the spectre of Apoist revolutionary retaliation.

Agents and collaborators of the enemy anticipate a blow with trepidation since YPG International called for using our legitimate right to retaliation everywhere in the world. But where does this legitimacy come from? It first comes from the history of Kurdistan Liberation Movement that was created under the leadership of Serok Apo. When Mahir Çayan and nine of his comrades were martyred on 30th March of 1972 in Kızıldere, Serok Apo organised a boycott in Ankara University and was jailed for seven months as a result of this act of retaliation. Once he was out, he met with two Turkish revolutionaries Kemal Pir and Haki Karer both of whom contributed to the construction of Apoist movement until they were martyred. Both of them along with others saw the liberation of peoples of Turkey in the liberation of Kurdistan and in Kurdistan revolution under the leadership of Serok Apo. When Haki Karer was assassinated in a plot organised by Turkish fascist state on 18th May of 1977 in Dîlok, Serok Apo said ‘I lost half of my soul’. The murderer of Haki Karer was killed a year after. Haki Karer was avenged. But the real act of retaliation was the PKK. ‘Blood has been shed now’ Serok Apo said, ‘For the sake of Haki, I have decided to found the PKK’. We can mention dozens of such decisive moments through which we can comprehend what Apoist revolutionary retaliation is about and where our legitimate right to retaliation comes from.(more…)